Looks like the fever is gripping India. On Wednesday (Jan 31) Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Khelo India School Games in New Delhi.
In order to encourage sports in the country, this is government's first-of-its-kind initiative. It is currently being held at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The programme has been kickstarted to help young talent from across schools in the country. The sporting event will see Under-17 athletes across 16 disciplines. Namely, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Judo, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Shooting, Swimming, Volleyball, Weightlifting, and Wrestling.
"We have decided to select 1000 kids every year from different sports and provide them Rs 5 lakh per annum for 8 years," the Prime Minister promised, TOI reported.
Long Jump:
The first champion who had a noticeable score was Tamil Nadu’s J. Coleshiya who had triumphed Kerala’s Sandra Babu in her last two attempts to earn gold on the opening day on Wednesday.
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Back in 2016, Coleshiya, known as Tamil Nadu’s golden girl in long jump, bettered in her field, won the gold in the Under 14 triathlon for girls and cleared 5.15 metres in long jump in her first attempt.
Shot put:
Another youngster who successfully grabbed the spotlight was Haryana’s Pooja who won gold with a throw of 13.88m in shot put. A. Jenci Susan and Rekha followed her rank and finished second and third respectively.
Track and field events:
Sprinting: When Uttarakhand’s Anu Kumar became the first gold medallist of Khelo India from the boys’ team, Gujarat’s Karthiriya Shraddha was initially named the winner in the girls’ section but was disqualified. However, the winner’s spot was later taken by Kerala’s Chantini C who recorded 4:50.81.
Another athlete who shone at the track and field events was Kerala's Ancy Sojan. This young powerhouse of talent offered relief to her state on the second day of the Khelo India School Games (KISG) on Thursday.
Ancy comes from a land which is famous for producing medal-winning athletes. While Karnataka swimmers dominated the pool, cornering six of the nine gold medals, Ancy’s gold medal haul in the long jump competition with an excellent effort of 5.80m in the 200m event was recommendable.
"I am grateful to my parents that they encouraged me to play sport. I am blessed that they were both athletes in their time and I could take to athletics myself," Ancy said to TOI.
She bagged four gold in the SGFI National championships in Bhopal, completing the sprint double, long jump and playing a part in the State team's sprint relay win.
Swimming:
The highlight of the day was Karnataka swimmer, Srihari Nataraj. He bettered his own national record in 100m backstroke with a timing of 56.90s, further improving on his own mark by nine-hundredths of a second.
The other notable scored were:
Here is a look at the social media reaction the event has garnered for itself so far:
Also read: Are women rewriting India’s sports history?
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